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Peterson introduces StroboClip HD

Peterson Tuners has introduced the latest addition to their line of high-quality, digital strobe tuners just in time for the Anaheim NAMM Show.

The StroboClip HD incorporates many of the professional features offered in their StroboPLUS HD tabletop digital tuner, but in a portable, clip-on model for easy stage use. Bluegrass pickers will appreciate both the high definition backlit display, making the spinning strobe wheel much easier to see, and the tuning sweeteners already programmed into the unit.

Peterson has created sweetening software specifically for the bluegrass instruments, which when selected, help compensate for tuning issues unique to each. For example, there are two settings for resonator guitar, one to set the thirds pure, and the other to lower them slightly to sound more in tune with fretted instruments. The banjo setting compensates for the difficulty of matching a B string open with a tuner, and finding it sharp beyond the first position.

Additionally, the mandolin setting is helpful in obtaining properly tuned and voiced pairs, while the fiddle setting ensures perfect fifths for either 4 or 5 string instruments. There is also a setting for tenor banjo to help tune the lower pitched strings and other presets make tuning checkups after installing a capo much quicker.

There are several dozen other sweetenings available to choose among, useful for orchestral instruments, other folk instruments around the world, and historic temperaments for original music ensembles.

Like the many other tuners they offer, the StroboClip HD is accurate to within a tenth of a cent, and the clasp that attaches to the headstock is made with soft rubber jaws.

It will be available following the NAMM show for $59.95 with free shipping offered from the company web site.

About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.

Nice. I still like my tc electronic PolyTune clip on-tuner (I don’t stray out of standard tuning much with my guitar, which makes the 6-strings-at-once tuning a lot easier to justify) but this one looks promising too. Certainly with its approach to nuanced “bluegrass instrument” tuning if it works as advertised.